Noelia Castillo, a 25-year-old woman, chose to end years of profound suffering through euthanasia on Thursday evening at a Barcelona hospital. She meticulously prepared for her death, donning her prettiest dress and makeup, desiring to appear beautiful in her final moments. The pain she sought to escape encompassed mental health struggles, sexual violence, and a body left paraplegic. Within 20 minutes of receiving three intravenous drugs, her heart stopped. Her final interview captured her resolute desire: "I want to go now and stop suffering, period." Despite her family's disapproval of euthanasia, Noelia prioritized her release from years of agony.

Noelia's death was carried out under Spain's euthanasia law, but not without a bitter legal battle that garnered international attention and ascended to the country's highest courts. This struggle was a culmination of a life shaped by early trauma and continuous adversity.

Her childhood began with warmth, marked by happy summers at her grandmother's house, attending fairs, and enjoying outdoor dinners. She fondly recalled these "very happy time[s]" before her life was marred by abuse and trauma. However, this joy was short-lived, fading with her parents' divorce and subsequent loss of their home due to financial struggles. She described an "unstable" joint custody arrangement, recalling waiting with her sister for hours at bars while their father drank. "After that, it was all bumps in the road, darkness, emptiness," she stated.

Following her parents losing custody due to addiction, mental health issues, and homelessness, Noelia and her sister entered the care system, placed under the guardianship of the Catalan government. From the age of 13, she moved through juvenile detention centers. By her early twenties, her despair led to multiple suicide attempts through drug overdoses and self-harm. She recounted two pill overdoses, self-harm in psychiatric wards, and drinking toxic cleaning solution, which necessitated stomach washing.

During this period, Noelia was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder with paranoia and suicidal thoughts. She also endured sexual assaults, first by a four-year partner after taking sleeping pills, then by two other men at an entertainment venue. A pivotal and devastating event occurred in October 2022, when, at 21, she was gang-raped by three men in a nightclub.

Days after the gang rape, on October 4, after consuming cocaine, Noelia climbed to the fifth floor of a building and jumped. She survived the fall but sustained a severe spinal cord injury, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. Her life became defined by constant neuropathic pain, incontinence, confinement to a wheelchair, and the need for catheters every six hours. She was assessed with a 74 percent disability rating. "I don't feel like doing anything: not going out, not eating. Sleeping is very difficult for me, and I have back and leg pain," she shared in an interview days before her death.

In April 2024, after a year and a half of partial paralysis, Noelia formally requested euthanasia through Catalonia's Guarantee and Evaluation Commission. Her request was approved in July. However, a legal battle ensued, lasting over a year and a half. Her father, Geronimo Castillo, supported by the ultraconservative Catholic group Christian Lawyers, sought to block the procedure. He argued that Noelia's mental health compromised her capacity for a free and conscious decision and claimed she had shown indications of changing her mind. He also asserted her condition did not meet the criteria for 'unbearable physical or psychological suffering'. In a desperate attempt to keep her alive, he recorded videos of her learning to walk again after her paralysis, using a walker and crutches.

The legal fight saw the initial suspension of her euthanasia, which had been scheduled for August 2025. Appeals progressed through the Spanish legal system. In March 2025, a judge ruled her father was not authorized to make decisions for her, a ruling upheld by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia in September. Her father continued to argue her personality disorder affected her judgment, citing the state's obligation to protect vulnerable lives. Noelia, however, told the court, "I want to finish with dignity once and for all," and claimed to have been "coerced" by religious groups who filled her care center room with religious symbols.

In January 2026, the Supreme Court refused her father's appeal, effectively affirming her right to proceed. A further appeal in February citing violations of legal oversight and the right to life was rejected by the Constitutional Court. The case was then taken to the European Court of Human Rights, which on March 24, rejected the request to halt the procedure, clearing the final legal obstacle to her assisted death.

Having followed every step of the legal battle, Noelia made one final appearance on Spanish television. "I've finally done it. Let's see if I can finally rest because I can't take this family anymore, the pain, everything that torments me from what I've been through," she stated, clarifying, "I don't want to be an example for anyone, it's simply my life, and that's all."

Her relationship with her father had significantly deteriorated during the prolonged fight. She felt he had not respected her decision and accused him of initially seeking to put a house in her name to continue collecting child support. After her decision, she said he disowned her, refusing to pay for her funeral or attend her euthanasia or burial, stating, "in his eyes, I'm already dead." While understanding his paternal grief, Noelia expressed frustration at his lack of communication beyond bringing food, questioning his motives: "Why does he want me alive? To keep me in a hospital?"

Noelia's mother, Yolanda, though disagreeing with her daughter's decision, stated she would "always be by her side." She expressed her prayers for a change of mind but acknowledged her powerlessness, lamenting that "some judge made a decision on the life of my child" and criticizing lawmakers who "did not even birth her."

Spain's euthanasia law, enacted in 2021, permits adults of sound mind suffering from a "serious and incurable illness" or a "chronic and disabling" condition to request assisted dying under strict safeguards, with costs covered by the public healthcare system. In 2024, 426 requests for assisted dying were granted.

Outside the Sant Pere de Ribes assisted living facility where Noelia was euthanized, teary-eyed protesters gathered. Noelia's best friend, Carla Gutierrez, was denied a final visit, expressing a desire to see if Noelia would change her mind or at least to say goodbye. Jose Maria Fernandez, acting for Christian Lawyers, criticized the legal and health systems, calling the euthanasia legislation an "applied suicide law." He argued that Noelia, a young girl with significant problems and a difficult life, should have received mental health treatment rather than death. Hard-right VOX MP Carlos Flores branded the decision an "execution," arguing the law, designed for terminally ill elderly people, was being misused.

Before the procedure, which began at 6:30 pm local time, Noelia asked her family for extra time. Loved ones stayed for an additional half-hour before she was left alone with the medic. She chose four photographs from her life to have with her: one of her painting her mother, another of her childhood puppy Wendy, one from her first day of school, and another from early childhood. She passed away alone in the room, with only the doctor present, approximately 20 minutes after the first injection. She had previously articulated her belief that "the happiness of a father, a mother, or a sister, cannot be more important than the life of a daughter."